Welcome Bishop June

After 13 years as Dean of Salisbury, a much-loved figure has moved on to her next challenge – being the 72nd Bishop of Llandaff.

The Rt Revd June Osborne was consecrated at a service in Brecon Cathedral on Saturday.

Bishop June, one of the most senior church leaders in the UK, was appointed in April by the Church in Wales’ bishops, and is the second woman bishop in Wales. She said the move would serve as “something of a homecoming for the family, particularly because my husband is from Cardiff and it is a place we know and love”.

The address at her consecration was given by the Bishop of Salisbury, Nicholas Holtam, and the Gospel was read by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA, who was the Anglican Communion’s first woman primate.

Bishop June was anointed with the oil of Chrism and presented with the symbols of office – the episcopal ring, pectoral cross and mitre, as well as a Bible and a pastoral staff.

Choristers and lay clerks from Salisbury Cathedral joined Brecon Cathedral Choir to sing at the service.

It was only the fifth time a bishop has been consecrated in Brecon Cathedral. Three of the previous occasions were during the time when John Morgan was Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Llandaff as his own cathedral was out of use for major services because of damage it sustained during World War II.

“Leading a diocese that is so diverse, in an area that is both historic and beautiful, will be challenging but I have an enormous appetite for the task and am deeply honoured to have the opportunity to join a diocesan team which is strong and imaginative. These are turbulent times across the world and the need for faith, and for the confident, distinctive leadership of the Church has never been more important,” Bishop June said.

Six days previously, at her farewell to Salisbury Cathedral after her final Choral Evensong, she had said that the Dean of Salisbury is the best job in the Church of England and being Bishop of Llandaff is the best job in the Church in Wales.

“How blessed I have been to hold that post,” she told a large gathering of family, friends and colleagues.

Canon Chancellor, Edward Probert said June had had made an enormous contribution to worship and the life of the Cathedral community, in her 22 years there: the major repair programme, social justice - making the Cathedral more outward-looking, the new font and toilets, playing a leading role on General Synod, the commemorations of the centenary of the First World War, the Leading Women programme, the Diocesan links with South Sudan and the Cathedral’s links with Stanford University in California. She has also been president of the Friends of Salisbury Cathedral.

Among the gifts presented to her were a book in which dozens of people had written messages, a lectern in wood and glass made in the Cathedral’s workshop for the chapel in her home and flowers from the Cathedral Flowers team.

She said: “My heart is full of gratitude. Thank you to you and thank you to God.”

She and her husband Paul then cut a cake, made by Susan Branch, depicting Salisbury Cathedral.

Llandaff is a densely populated Diocese containing Cardiff and the large parts of the South Wales Valleys, as well as more traditionally rural parts of Glamorgan. In total it has a population of well over a million, close to half the total population of Wales.

A ground-breaking figure in the Church of England, Bishop June was the first female Dean to be appointed to a medieval cathedral, having served as Salisbury Cathedral’s Canon Treasurer for nearly 10 years. She was active in the national life of the Church of England, serving for many years on General Synod’s Standing Committee, including sitting on the Panel of Chairs.

One of the first women to be ordained as a priest in England in 1994, having been a Deaconess since 1980 and Deacon since 1987, Bishop June’s ministry has been characterised by her passion for equality and diversity and she was a founder of the Church’s Leading Women programme.

She is married to barrister Paul Goulding QC and they have two children, Megan and Tom.

Bishop June’s election was confirmed at a sacred synod meeting at Brecon Cathedral on Friday night. She will be enthroned at Llandaff Cathedral on July 22.